[Ghana Govt.] The government will be spending one percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on science and technology research, Professor Frimpong Boateng, Minister for the Environment, Science and Technology and Innovation, has disclosed.

[VOA] In South Africa, workers will soon begin construction of a new 100 megawatt solar power plant near the town of Pofadder. In Morocco, expansion of a giant solar power plant near the city of Ourzazate will soon increase its capacity to 580 megawatts. Solar energy has been slower to arrive in West Africa, but growth is underway.

[Nation] The successful launch on Friday of the First Kenya University Nano Satellite -- Precursor Flight (1KUNS-PF) -- with the potential of conducting commercial Space missions that previously required large satellites is a technological milestone worth noting.

[The Exchange] Nairobi -Following UNESCO recently revelation that only 28 percent of women globally are currently working in science and technology related fields, General Electric (GE) and Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) have launched a collaboration with Kids Comp Camp in Kenya to increase girls' participation and uptake of careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

[Vanguard] Nigeria has continued to battle misdiagnosis occasioned by poor state of medical laboratories. The problem has not only caused poor healthcare delivery across the nation but also deaths. Meanwhile, medical tourism takes its toll on the system and billions of Naira lost in the process.

[The Conversation Africa] Laboratory tests are the backbone of clinical care. They are used to screen patients, to diagnose diseases and to manage conditions ranging from anaemia and diabetes to HIV and malaria.

[Daily Maverick] Scientists are asking questions about the data the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) used to implement its new testosterone policy - specifically at how some members arrived at their conclusions.

[IPS] Rusape -Every year, Amos Chandiringa, 43, a farmer in Nemaire village in Makoni district in northeastern Zimbabwe, laboriously waters his tobacco nursery with a watering can. The toil of the job often leaves him without the energy or time to do other household chores.

[Namibian] PRESIDENT Hage Geingob has wished the Namibian director of the Solar System Exploration at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Japie van Zyl and the Nasa team success with the InSight Mission.

[Observer] Mrs. Marion Subah, Chief of Party (CoP) of Maternal and Child Survival Program/Human Resources for Health (MCSP/HRH), on Tuesday underscored the importance of doing laboratory tests before a nurse or a doctor can prescribe the necessary medication for a patient.

[New Times] Discussions on the development of a regional science, technology and innovation policy for East African Community (EAC) kicked off in Kigali on Thursday, with stakeholders pushing for faster consultations to have the policy in place.

[News24Wire] The Limpopo High Court has heard how DNA samples collected from alleged victims of a serial rapist helped to prosecute the man who is accused of conducting a reign of terror on women for almost four years.

[The Conversation Africa] Around 260 million years, the earth was dominated by mammal like reptiles called therapsids. The largest of these therapsids were the dinocephalians, a genus composed of several herbivorous and carnivorous species.

[The Conversation Africa] Africa was once at the centre of the world - literally. It was the landmass at the centre of Pangaea, a super continent that broke up into smaller plates about 200 million years ago.

[The Conversation Africa] Long-lasting insecticide treated nets and indoor spraying are the main malaria vector control interventions recommended by the World Health Organisation. Both target mosquitoes that feed indoors.

[allAfrica] Cape Town -An African scientist on the cutting edge of research into drugs which have the potential to both protect and cure people from malaria in a single dose has been named as one of "the world's 50 greatest leaders" by Fortune, the American business magazine.

[Thomson Reuters Foundation] Rome -In the United States, it is a wood-borer beetle that arrived in packaging and which has indirectly caused an estimated 21,000 premature human deaths. In South Korea, it is a worm that forced the government to cut down 10 million pine trees.